


The Other Side

by whothebuckisfucky



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Confused Bucky Barnes, Hydra Steve Rogers (briefly), I'll add more if I think of any, M/M, Multi, Past Abuse, Past Torture, Slow Burn, Trust Issues, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, You'll see what I mean, but building trust :), i always get to the tags and just make pterodactyl screeching noises at what to put, relationship building, stuckony - Freeform, time line mixup
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:20:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22180924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whothebuckisfucky/pseuds/whothebuckisfucky
Summary: The ringing takes him into that darkness engulfing him, orange heat fully being replaced by the black coldness.Then a white as his eyes open.The ringing ebbs, replaced by some sort of-- beeping. Rhythmic beeping.The soldier moves, eyes blearily looking up to see a heart rate monitor. Vision blurs and unblurs as he stares, comprehends it.What?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The Other Side

The cover of darkness was likely the only thing keeping them from being spotted immediately as they got past the fence. The building from afar didn’t look like anything well guarded or important, but then again, SHIELD sure did like their hidden-in-plain-sight facilities. And by his brief explained orders, they were making something that could annihilate HYDRA easily. 

Normally, something like that would sound like false urgency to Barnes, even if he would take the mission seriously no matter what he rarely thought against, but this time there was a strong difference swaying his self-kept opinion. Captain Rogers was uncertain. Seeing any expression other than that same cold, stern look on his face was bad news, but seeing  _ doubt  _ was something that honestly scared the soldier. 

All he knew was the energy source in this building was something powerful. Something that was enough to make the Captain  _ nervous _ . 

His orders were simple; kill everyone in sight and under no circumstances let them power up their energy source. It sounded simple, routine enough for the two super-soldiers, but his handler’s tiny break in expression was beyond enough to tell him that if they failed, then it would be catastrophic for them and all of HYDRA. 

They couldn’t fail.

The best thing going for them so far was that they hadn’t been seen. Barnes wouldn’t dare stray from Captain Rogers unless ordered to, weapon raised already as they neared closer to the building. 

“Dammit!” Is hissed from the man in front of him as a siren kicks up, having to be some sort of invisible boundaries crossed. Well, he could take back the hadn't been seen thought now. 

The lights outside the building light up, the soldier’s eyes fighting to adjust to the sudden blinding lights pointing out around the building and lighting up their position immediately. 

“Stay close.” Gets snarled over at him from the Captain, gripping gun tighter in preparation for the fight about to take place. 

A soft huff is covered by his mask as Captain Rogers starts running straight for the front of the facility, running after him to follow the order of staying close. The sound of the doors of the front of the building sliding open is the only warning given before gunfire starts, vastly outnumbered, even if SHIELD was vastly out-powered by the two of them.

Rogers keeps his beeline forward, using the shield to block the bullets coming their way, Barnes staying behind him the best he could to keep cover as they neared closer. He’s taking every pause in fire to shoot back, mowing down the front-line of agents easily. 

The tactic of ramming straight through the middle of people shooting at them wasn’t exactly a plan that Barnes agreed with, but couldn’t and wouldn’t speak against, especially after Rogers did that exact move. Shit. 

A gun is pulled from one of his holsters by the Captain, turning his own back to him to fire at the incoming surrounding them, only barely blocking gunfire back with metal arm covering his head. By the grotesque sounds of metal breaking bones and splitting skin from his other side, his handler’s aggression was doing its job to take out the rest in their path. 

The only indication that the room was cleared for now was the cease in gunfire, turning back to the Captain to continue to trail after him. The soldier disregards the corpses being stepped over and on as they pushed forward to the only other opening of the building, stomach twisting as an orange glow illuminates the hallway. 

Barnes feels body tense up inadvertently at hearing a growled noise from Rogers, but knows the reasoning well enough. The power source was being turned on. Shit.

The first step into the room makes it clear of that, a large machine emitting the glow brighter and brighter by the second. 

“Hurry up, they’re here!” Is called from one of the men in the room, pulling his attention to what had to be scientists working on this goddamn thing. Rogers takes a throw with his shield, the force of it killing the two men beside the machine almost instantly. 

A gunshot goes off before the shield comes back causing the soldier to jolt in his spot, attention not having been on anywhere else in the room but the machine.

_ No.  _

Blue eyes widen as Captain Rogers drops, shield slamming off elsewhere with its wielder unable to catch it. The soldier drops his own gun as he goes to his handler, pressing a hand against the gushing wound in the man’s neck. 

Another gunshot echos out, metal arm blocking it from hitting his own head as he tries desperately to stop the bleeding.

Shit no no no. 

A hand roughly shoves him away, wide eyes looking to the Captain’s face as he sputters out blood, getting that icy glare back from the dying man. He’s swallowing, knowing if he failed to get that machine off then, dead or alive, Rogers might just kill him for stopping. 

Another couple of gunshots are aimed at him, blocking them again as he makes a scramble for the shield, shooting back at the terrified remaining scientist. He manages his shot even if his mind was racing, knowing the Captain was dying, if not already dead in the few seconds he had parted from him. 

The orange light of the machine glows more, scooping up the shield as the soldier makes a run to it, looking over the panels and not understanding a damn thing about them. Shit. He shouldn’t have killed the last person that knew anything about this goddamn thing. 

Attention snaps to the hallway at the sound of more people, lowering to the unmoving body of his handler and unable to pull his attention away until agents litter the entrance into the room. 

He was panicked, beyond panicked, to a point that he couldn’t think straight. Everything was happening too fast for his mind to catch up to the way his body was trained to react. 

More gunfire is blocked with the shield, running to where the light was mainly being admitted from, firing a shot into it and barely cracking the casing. Shit. Barnes grits teeth, turning his back to the agents to raise the shield and slam it down into the casing, breaking it open as bullets light up his back and legs, stumbling down almost instantly. 

Metal hand grips the shield, pushing it in more as with the struggle to stand, hell, to struggle to keep his eyes open, through the pain ripping through his body. A loud crack sounds, heat overtaking his body, and somewhere along the lines he finds himself against the floor far back from the machine as fire engulfs it. 

His hearing was replaced by ringing, only comprehending that he was slumped sideways and that the orange of the energy source was being replaced by the orange of fire spreading outwards. At first, the soldier thinks maybe the fire is dying down, but soon enough realizes that it was his vision that was bleeding into darkness instead. 

The hurt and burn in his body was almost too intense to register, and soon enough he was finding it ebbing away into that same dark nothingness too. He felt numb. Heavy. His body felt like the inky dark that filled his vision, ears ringing and buzzing as the feeling of anything really started to leave his body.

Oh. 

Shit.

He was dying too. 

The ringing takes him into that darkness engulfing him, orange heat fully being replaced by the black coldness. 

Then a white as his eyes open.

The ringing ebbs, replaced by some sort of-- beeping. Rhythmic beeping. 

The soldier moves, eyes blearily looking up to see a heart rate monitor. Vision blurs and unblurs as he stares, comprehends it. 

What?

As his breathing registers, so does the tube shoved down nose and throat, swallowing dryly to a sick feeling in his stomach. He didn’t feel quite right. Dizzy, weak. 

But there wasn't pain where it had been before. There wasn't pain at all.

His fuzzy vision moves from the monitor, taking in what was slowly being processed as some sort of room. There were wires draped on elsewhere, following them down to his arm, fingers weakly moving, but still feeling too heavy to lift his arm at all. He tries to move the prosthetic hand, finding no response and looking over to the absence of the arm entirely. 

It didn’t make sense to him at all.

Had he been extracted? 

This looked different than where he was usually treated for any sort of wounds. It was cleaner. It looked like a hospital. 

Had someone else taken him? SHIELD would’ve killed him. 

The thoughts are paused as a dread fills his chest with the door being pulled open. The woman in the doorway pauses, catching the color of her eyes enough to know that she was meeting his own gaze, even if he still couldn’t see quite right. She hurries out of his sight, the door still wide open as she leaves, unable to really see what was out in the hallway except for another door. 

A dry noise leaves the soldier’s throat as he tries to swallow, still feeling extremely uncomfortable with the tube in him. Eyes close until he hears movement, the same tense up locking muscles at the woman coming back with two other people. 

One moves over to his left side while the other moves to the machines that were beeping beside of him. Eyes flutter with an attempt to turn head away as a light shines into one of his eyes. “He’s responsive.” He hears, voice sounding muddy in his hearing, but enough to register it well. 

“Can you hear me?” The same voice comes again what he thought was seconds later, but honestly could've been minutes by how out of it he felt. Either way, it's pulling his attention back over now that the light was out of his eye, still seeing spots from it. 

A weak nod is given, followed by a very dry and weak sounding, “Yes.” 

His own voice startled him, sounding as though he hadn’t spoken in months. He didn’t talk  _ much _ , but it never had sounded that close to a whisper. How long had he been out for?

“Go get Captain Rogers.” Another voice in the room says, eyes barely catching the woman hurrying back out. 

Captain Rogers? Had he made it? No. There was no way. Super soldier or not, there was no walking away from that neck wound. Was it someone else then? 

The person on his left side rounds to the right, hand moving to slip under the soldier’s. “Can you squeeze?” They ask. Barnes slowly and weakly curls hands to attempt it, squeezing enough to be able to call it a success by the reaction of a “Good. Great.”

He felt so weak. Sick and weak. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, unable to process what was happening or where he was. He was lost. 

One of the two meanders back out of the room while the other stays to look him over more, trying to turn away as the light shines back in his eyes, closing them with a dry noise of protest. 

“Bucky?” 

The voice startles him, eyes opening right back into the light shining in them before it’s taken away. The voice had been clouded in his ears, but still range in familiarity. 

“He’s very weak. Don’t push him.” The person beside him warns, blearily watching as they move back out of the room and a much larger figure comes to his side. Barnes very dizzily watches as a chair is moved from the end of the bed to beside him, the man sitting down next to him.

The soldier is quickly taken aback at the face coming in and out of focus. It was-- Rogers? But. He looked different. Less scarring and-- softer. He was looking at him with worry, watching him with expressions that he had never seen from the man. Never seen, to his memory, directed towards himself by anyone.

Attention shifts to a hand going to his arm, the initial reaction being to tense at the touch, even if the hand placed is gentle, being cautious of the needles and wires littering his arm. Blues find their way back up to the Captain, full of uncertainty.

“How do you feel?” He asks, voice softer than he’d  _ ever  _ heard from the man. This-- couldn’t be Rogers. But it looked almost  _ exactly _ like him. Sounded like him. 

A swallow tries to bring his voice back up, “Like shit.” He manages, blinking hard as a smile crosses the man’s lips. He didn’t understand. Eyes flick to his neck momentarily, not seeing any sign of a scar, or any indication there had ever been a bullet ripping through it. His attention comes back up to the soft concern, swallowing again. 

“No offense, but you look like it, Buck,” Rogers says, the soft smile staying in place. 

Another dry noise escapes him at that, taking a slow breath. Why was he calling him Bucky? Buck? He didn’t understand. He didn’t know where he was or what happened. 

There’s hesitation, finding the courage in him to ask a question as eyes stayed on the Captain, vision still blurring in and out of focus. “What happened?” He croaks out quietly, expecting some sort of backlash at speaking without being spoken to first, but only getting a more concerned look and small nod back.

“We were trying to storm a HYDRA base with the others. They had some crazy energy weapon, Tony got it disabled, but you took a shot to the head by one of the scientists trying to cover him.” He explains, pulling a ton of confusion from him. 

_ They  _ were storming a  _ HYDRA _ base? With-- who were the others? Who was Tony? 

“You’ve been in a coma for six months, Buck. Said chances of waking back up were slim.” He continues, tone dipping to something of more upset before a breath is taken. “I-- You’re awake now.” The hand is taken off his arm to move down to hand to give a very gentle squeeze. 

There’s a long silence between them, Barnes’s-- Bucky’s--?-- eyes lowering down to the hand as he tried to comprehend everything. This was wrong. Something was very wrong. He had  _ died. _ They both had  _ died.  _ What the hell was he talking about? A more bewildered expression raises back up to Rogers’s, getting an instant look of concern from the Captain.

“What’s wrong?” 

“I don’t remember anything.” Is the best way he knows how to handle it, tears welling up in the overwhelming feeling of dread taking him over. He was confused. Lost. He was so so lost. The tears running down cheeks get the hand to give another gentle squeeze, able to see through the blur of tears and shaky vision that he was being looked at with soft worry. He didn't understand why he wasn't being punished for showing emotion. He didn't understand why he was being looked at like that or why he was being spoken to so softly.

He didn’t understand. This wasn’t right. None of it was  _ right.  _


End file.
